In Dec 2013, Payton was in her first ever school program. I was so excited and had been waiting 2 years for this because the infant class was never in it (though the teachers did take them to watch). Have I mentioned how much I LOVED where she went to "day care"? It was one of the few things I was worried about missing when we moved, because these teachers just loved the children and had known Payton since she was 10 weeks old. Anyways, back to the program...

The kids were all supposed to wear a red shirt and a winter hat. And of course Payton chose her Minnie hat to wear. And looked rather cute if I do say so myself... especially climbing her little self up those stairs..

I mean just open this next pic and look at her cute face!

The 2 year olds sang jingle bells... well, more like they shook the bells and the teachers sang the song. But it was the cutest thing ever!

Afterwards there was a little party in the classroom with cookies and Sprite. Out of big kid cups!

Funny looking back at these that Payton ate the whole cookie and drank the Sprite... now a days she eats a few bites of a cookie and, from what I am told, during snack at school will only drink water. They finally got her drinking some of the juice, but the girl just loves water.

And then we tried to take a family pic but Payton was a little bit of a busy body and looking all around. This was the best one we got.

Thinking about this program (and everything else they did in that day care) really makes me miss the place. Payton had a GREAT school year in prek3 this year and LOVED her teachers, our school, and her friends. But man do I miss those teachers in this school! (And sad that next year my girl will be in REAL prek ALL day EVERY day.... tears!)

I have never been a big fan of Halloween, but having a child, I try to make the best of it. One of our favorite things to do was to take Payton to the trunk-r-treats in the church parking lots. Specifically this year we took her to the one at the day care she went to. I loved the safety of it and never having to worry. They also had snacks for everyone there and the people who were giving out candy were just so much fun. They would decorate the backs of their cars, play music, and some would even dress up.

Another of our traditions, like most people, is to carve pumpkins (and paint one). Payton got into the digging out the guts portion... though you can see she was semi grossed out.

And then she went to town painting.

And then did this...

So smart to paint her own hand and do her hand print. (Don't mind this messy hairdo)

And then of course we went trick or treating in our neighborhood. We didn't take her to a lot of houses. We just drove her to my parents' house (tradition), then went to maybe 10 or less houses in our development. She enjoyed the concept of ringing people's doorbells, "saying" trick or treat, and getting candy.

Yep, still in 2013 here... but we are almost to the end of my posts for 2013 and will be only 18 months behind... sorta. Some people I know would just give up on trying to catch up and just start posting from where we are now, but I can't. I already have all the pictures planned out for the rest of 2013/ most of 2014 posts. It is just a matter of editing and posting.

So, because this is pretty self explanatory, here are the pics we took from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch in Memphis. It was rather difficult to get the pictures we wanted during this trip because Payton was at the age where taking posed pictures was not her cup of tea. But we did get a few...

Trying to get herself this really big pumpkin...

These ones were more her size... and had to be used in order to get her to smile.

In September 2013, one of my friends got married and Payton and I were both in the wedding. So we traveled up to Buffalo for all the wedding festivities. While we were here, we took some time to go to the Naval Park (Tim wanted to show Payton around).

At some point Payton decided that on one of these boats was Jake and Captain Hook. So while we walked around she and Tim were trying to track down Hook. I guess whatever works to keep the 2 year old entertained while walking around.

And we stopped and took a couple pictures.

Then the wedding... since Payton and I were both in the wedding, Tim was in charge of the camera. Payton looked SO cute in her flower girl dress however she was NOT having the whole walking down the aisle thing. She didn't have to throw petals, just walk down and look cute. But she and the ring bearer had to be bribed a bit. If you look in Payton's hand, you can see she is carrying a dum-dum instead of her flower ball. I believe I carried that down. Again, whatever works.

For the reception, which was at a fire hall, (both the bride and groom are volunteers) the kiddos came in in a fire truck. Austin pushed Payton in and it was quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

And then Payton danced the night away...

The last thing we did was take Payton to her first regular season football game. Tim was beyond excited that the wedding weekend fell during a home game. And Payton had a BLAST!

It worked out even better that my brother in law, sister in law, and their daughter who is a couple weeks older than Payton were in town and came to the game too. Payton loves spending time with her cousin.

And she got to hang out with Jackie and Jarrett again too!

During the game, Payton got REALLY into all the yelling and cheering...

Just like every other trip we took to Buffalo while living in Memphis, it was a whirlwind. We were busy and barely had time to stop and breathe, but we had fun!